Alisson Becker’s unexpected, dramatic late winner at West Brom has Jurgen Klopp believing fate is playing a part in Liverpool’s bid for Champions League qualification.
His side went into last weekend knowing three victories would secure a top-four finish which seemed unlikely only a couple of weeks ago.
But with the time almost over at the Hawthorns, it needed the intervention of the Brazil goalkeeper, becoming the first in the club in that position to score, to keep their hopes on track.
However, as they go to Burnley looking to make it seven wins from the last nine and keep their destiny in their own hands heading into the final game of the season at home to Crystal Palace, Klopp will remind his players there is still plenty of work to do.
‘Don’t we all believe in fate until we realise this time it is not meant to be?’ he said.
‘This is what it is like, as human beings are always like this. We are always believing until we realise it was the wrong moment.
‘It was a very positive moment and in this moment it looked like it [Champions League qualification] was meant to be but if we finish the season now we are fifth, so that doesn’t make too much sense.
‘If we keep the points tally we have we will not even finish the season in fifth. That means there is still a job to do. If it is fate or not we will see after the end of the season.’
Klopp is still wary that despite recovering from the slump which had them go from winning just three league matches from the turn of the year to early March to becoming the Premier League’s form team with 20 points from a possible 24, their struggle is not over.
He will have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and possibly fellow midfielder James Milner back for the game at Turf Moor – and Diogo Jota could still make a surprise late appearance in the final game of the season after his foot injury proved to be not as serious as first feared – but he still has seven other senior players sidelined.
‘That is why we were not super, super optimistic thinking, “Yeah, we will do it” because we really had some lessons this year and one of the lessons I learned very early in my life is don’t celebrate the day before the night,’ he added.
‘Nothing happened yet. We only qualified for the semis [ie: two matches to go]. That’s good, now we have to make sure we are ready for it.
‘It is a quite intense period of the season for us.
‘It feels good in the moment but we had phases during the season when it was just hard that you can’t get over the one game properly and then the next game is waiting.
‘We need to be lucky with injuries. We don’t have a lot of options in some positions. Maybe we deserve it [Champions League qualification] with the injuries with all the things we went through this year.’
